30/08/09 Day 7: the return

7 Days. 168 hours. 10080 Minutes. 604800 Seconds.

Thats how long (in intricate detail) I have been back and I haven't had a very eventful week.

My friend has gone off to Uni so he allowed Me and another mate look after his Rock Band 2 game. HAPPY TIME!! Rock Band and Guiter Hero is awesome, especially in groups but the thing I hate about it is the price. WHY shold some plastic instruments cost nearly £200?? Thats just isn't sensical! Even at a time when the UK is gripped in a economic crisis they still insist on be overpriced. Still there (Harmonix) isn't as bad Activision and there Guiter Hero franchise. Do they need to charge such prices? I thought the point was to be competitive? Still not as bad as Modern Warfare 2 price hike to £55.







Wait... I'm sorry. Now I'm mad!

Activison have raised the RRP of possibly the biggest game of 2009. Or maybe of all time if the marketing hype is to be believed. So I get it that the World is in a pickle. Activision is a company that has to stay afloat. So raising the price of there biggest game makes sense on a globel scale.

UK only?

WHAT! Not Globel? Not USA and Europe? Not just Europe? THE UK? ONLY? How is that ethical? Surely raising a price of a game thats gonna sell like theres no tommorow in just one region is just wrong. Isn't there commitees or someone that can stop this? Using the UK as a testing ground for Activisions world domination is wrong and no one cares because its the UK.
Is the US paying attention? No. Just wait until there prices raise. Then it will be to late.
Is this worth it:



HELL YES... for me. I'm getting the Prestige edition which hasn't raised price because they have NIGHT VISION GOOGLES.


NIGHT. VISION. GOOGLES.


YAY.



Yesterday I went to see 'Inglorious Basterds'. It was a Tarentino film so it was BOUND to be gory and violent. And it was. However I don't think it was the masterpice the press have made it out be.
It was good but I would have made some changes. Some scenes felt out of place and not needed. That would have helped the speed of the movie and make it more connected. Another issue I had was the amount of subtitles there were. At first I thought it was realism. French people in France would speak French and Germans would speak German. But by the way it ended, It was clear that realism was NOT Tarentinos aim.
One little gripe I had was Samuel L. Jackson appearing out of nowhere and narrating it. We haven't had a Narrater for an hour of the movie. Why now?
Brad Pitts performence was good. And funny.

One thing the press is telling the truth about is Batman: Arkham Asylum.
I don't need to tell you. Just read the reviews and watch this:




Awesome

(Night Vision Google for the WIN!!)

22/08/09 The Last Day

Here we go. Its 6:30am here in Spain. The packings done and the breakfast has been eaten.

The Coach arrives at 7:40am so we got sometime to check everything is ready. So I can't write much now because the notebook I have been writing this in has got to be packed. not much to say because I have been trying to relax and busy preparing to go home.

I'll write next on Sunday 30th August about that week. But the difference?

IT WILL BE LIVE!!!!
It won't be me writing from a notebook.
My real thoughts as they happen... EXCLUSIVE to 'Yes... My name IS Earl' blog.

Not that anyone cares

15/08/09 The Dreaded Black... DOT

Just got back from dinner. I thought I might have a nice wasy night, so I decided to get the PSP out.

But something was amiss.

The bottem right...

Is that MOVEMENT???

UNDER THE SCREEN!!!!????

A little Spanish Brown bug has scampered its way into my PSP circertry and from there onto the Screen. No... not on, UNDER!

I'm pacing, thinking it will leave of its own accord... somehow. Preying it will leave on its own.

I hate blemishes on any screen and its typical this happens.

I got rid of my fat DS and fat PSP for these reasons.

Now what?

To be Continued...

10 minutes later

Wierd, Its now a small black blurry thing. Maybe its started to biodegrade?

14/08/09 Fish City

Fish seem to have such an easy life (except for the concept of constant danger and being eaten on a plate next to chips). Just swim and eat, then they do that again. They seem so relaxed just swaying through the water oblivious to the world.

What has started my fishy thinking?

Today I voyaged into the world of scuba diving.

Its strange how an entire world can not only exist beneath the waves but was also carved by them and currents along the seabed. People seem to forget that such a place is even there. Fish and other animals all have there own eco-system and co-exist (except for a little thing called the 'food chain').

The way the sea has created formations of rocks on the seafloor.

All unique due to the swaying of the waves and other factors.

Just an observation.

12/08/09 The Sounds...

Snoring. What a wierd phenomonom.

Some people snore, some people don't. Some loud, some quiet. ALL annoying.

I get that its a normal occurence and a hell of alot of people do it, but when your trying to sleep and you have the constant noise in your ear, it becomes to much to tolerate.

I hate the unknown.

Snoring is an unknown... to me.

What courses it?

Why do people do it?

Do people research it?

What are they called? Snoreapoligists?

What is it good for?

Absolutly nothing! I hate it when it affects me. People snore. I know that and have no problem with it. Just don't do it in my ear.

Anyway...

I have still be pondering about advertisments and the companies that run them. Some are normal:

And some not so normal:

(courtesy of Joystiq.com)

We have to imagine that the marketing team for BioShock 2 is split into two warring factions, each one trying to outdo the other's promotions. "We're going to make an online pseudo-ARG site." "Oh yeah? Well we're going to give away characters as a pre-order bonus." "Oh yeah? Well we're going to set up an eerie simulacrum of our ARG site in the middle of Comic-Con." Hopefully the escalation will stop before we reach: "Oh yeah? Well we're going to kidnap an actual little girl and take her to the bottom of the ocean."The latest salvo from one of these sects is pretty clever (and legal, we think) -- a number of advertisements for plasmids and Rapture locales tucked into bottles from Arcadia's Worley Winery (an in-game spirits retailer) recently washed up on beaches across the world. Kotaku readers grabbed images from the bottle-peppered shores of Brighton Beach, The Hague, Vancouver and Santa Monica. If your mainland orientation kept you from checking out the promotion, don't despair -- you can already grab one of these ad-filled bottles on eBay for around $100.

But both stretch what can be said. Can you tell a consumer one thing but not deliever?

For example :

If an airline says:

'Fly to Spain for £X'

you would assume that your getting on a plane and fly over to spain. When you get there, they have a helicopter waiting.

Not a great example, but it still stands (kinda).

You get what they say but they never specify until its too late. And do they have the real product tucked away and want to to go and get it (literlly in some cases).

It even comes down to 'exclusivity' in gameing.

Can a compnay like Sony or Microsoft tout there game as an exclusive even though they KNOW in 6 months or so the product will be annouced for another platform.

Bioshock was like this (Xbox 360 to PS3)

As was Final Fantasy 13 (PS3 to Xbox 360)

Funny what length companies go too to fool the unwitting public.

09/08/09 Day One

First day away in the year. I would say its not of to the best of starts. All the stuff (I.E Fridge, TWO beds) we should have got, we didn't.

One thing I did get is 'Tales of Vesperia' but now I can't play it till I get back in two weeks.

Its strange that I'm getting 'Vesperia'.

When I was young I liked the JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) because the characters and settings were so similar to cartoons.

But as I grew up I preferred WRPG (Western RPG) because of there preferred 'gritty, realistic' route. Games such as Mass Effect spring to mind.

They prefer to have real stories with consequences, while JRPG has stuff like 'friendship' and other stupid things.

But sometimes I get the urge for Cheesy Japanese stuff. I'm not saying all of them. Metal Gear Solid on the Playstations is INCREDIBLE. A real credit to the entire games industry and really pushes the medium to become more like Movies.

And let us never forget the greatness that Nintendo and Sony put it.

But back to the room fiasco. It got me thinking about what companies can say to get your money. For example: if you say 'Not Guaranteed' then you have no come back to the huge Mega Corporations. Which is obviously CRAP!!

Looks nothing like that. How can it say one thing in the brochure but a different thing when you arrive at the hotel or whatever your staying in.

So, all in all, not the best start.

But at least the TV has BBC.

My feeling of the day: Cheated.

I'll be BACK!!

Ok, heres the deal.

It turns out that internet in spain SUCKS and I don't really want my laptop being attacked by the spanish customs.

If I use My Ipod Touch then I get like 30 words and no Pics. Whats the point?

So this is what I'm gonna do:

Every night in Spain I'll write a blog... ON PAPER (Redundent, I know).

Then when I get home there will be a MASS update with everything I thought on my Voyage across the Lake we call an Ocean.

Tell you what I will miss:

Sam and Max Series 2 (just started)

Tales of Monkey Island.

ummmm...

Not really any TV or Movies I'm gonna miss. I got Torchwood and Scrubs on my Ipod so I'm sorted.

See you in 2 weeks...